Best Left Forgotten 6

 

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball Z belongs to Akira Toriyama, not me, and I make no money from this story at all. Warning: contains mentions of rape and YAOI! If you can’t handle it, don’t read it.

 

            They were two weeks into their journey, and Goku’s nerves were jumping.

            He had liked the Yardrat-jin; they ate more than he did, they didn’t use needles, and they were some of the kindest creatures he knew. His breath hitched, though, as the reason for this trip intruded on his mind.

            He shook himself, and carefully blocked that thought again, before it overwhelmed him. If he didn’t he would go running to Piccolo again, and he had been doing that a lot recently. His cheeks flushed at the thought.

            There had been no more dreams about sex with Piccolo, although the rape ones had returned, along with the sound of crying babies. Just cold blackness, all around him, and the wails of those children. Those had been the ones to send him running to Piccolo. The first time he had done that, Piccolo had been mediating when he had barged in, tripping as he grabbed his friend’s arms for balance, hands cold and face blotchy from the tears. Had he been paying attention, he would have laughed at Piccolo’s expression.

            Without the presence of Piccolo and Gohan, he was sure he would have killed himself by now. They had kept him distracted with training, talk, and food. For some reason, Piccolo had been forcing him to eat like there was no tomorrow. He would have to ask him about that later…

            If it hadn’t been for that dream, he would never have started to notice certain things about Piccolo. His stillness. The graceful way he moved, like a leaf on the wind. How soft his skin looked… Masculine and powerful…. Fascinating…

            He had been wandering through the limited amount of halls the ship Bulma built had, on his way to the mess hall, when he stopped outside the bridge to see if Gohan wanted anything, and heard the other two talking. He grinned faintly as he noticed the turn of the conversation…

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            Piccolo tried not to roll his eyes as Gohan began to YET AGAIN extol the virtues of Videl, his girlfriend. This time it was about how pretty she was, which turned into how smart she was, how nice she was, how brave she was…

            Piccolo wondered if this tendency to repeat was something all humans did, or just particular to Gohan.

            This went on for a good twenty minutes before Gohan noticed that his teacher was politely no longer paying attention, and he looked sheepish.

            “Sorry, Piccolo-san. Have you ever been in love with a girl?”

            Piccolo arched an eyebrow ridge, and smirked. “No. My kind are asexual, remember?”

            Gohan grinned crookedly. “Hey, when you’re in love, you want everyone else to be in love too- wait, you mean you can’t- ah-“  He made some hand motions, and Piccolo looked puzzled for a moment, then his eyes widened.

            “Uh, well, we can…” Gohan perked up at this, and started to interrogate the Namek.

            “But if there are no girls then how?”

            “Well, we-“ Piccolo cleared his throat noisily, and mumbled,” areboth.”

            Gohan blinked. “What did you say, Piccolo-san?”

            Piccolo sighed, and looked annoyed. “I said we’re both. We can change from male to female if we are going to partner and reproduce sexually. Otherwise, we have no such organs. They only emerge when we are going to mate. If you reproduce asexually, you can choose the traits of your offspring, which is why most Nameks do it that way. If it is sexual, you can’t.”

            Gohan’s eyes decided that saucers weren’t big enough to describe his eyes anymore. “You mean you could be a mom and a dad?”

            Piccolo didn’t answer, just growled.

            “Have you ever been interested in anyone?’ Gohan asked, enjoying this weird talk he was having. Piccolo rarely opened up like this, but he had been talkative since they have started taking care of Goku.

            “No!” Piccolo said, quickly. Gohan snickered. He had said it way too quickly.

            “So, who is it?” he teased.

            Piccolo just glared, and got up to leave.

            He walked right into Goku as he left.

            “Um, hey Piccolo!” Goku said cheerfully, his arms around Piccolo to keep from falling. They stared at each other for a long moment, nose to nose, feeling the breath of the other on their faces. Goku became abruptly aware of being aroused, and pulled away so fast you thought he had been burned.

            “Sorry, I was gonna ask Gohan if he wanted food, bye!”

            Piccolo nodded and hurried away, trying to make sense of his confused feelings.

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            Piccolo had split himself in two to spar, even while he used his movements to clear his mind. He had never had this much inner turmoil.

            When Goku had started clinging to him like a leech, he had ignored everything else but helping the other man. He hadn’t questioned why.

            At first, the contact had been disturbing. Piccolo was not a tactile person. He had never really allowed himself to touch or be touched. Gohan had started to change that, although the road had been long.

            Yet when Goku had touched him, he started feeling more protective than he could ever remember being. It was a strange kind of protectiveness, one that made him want to take the pain away by touching him, making him shiver with pleasure, see his face glowing with the sensations he could cause-

            He saw his archrival at his most vulnerable, and he had seen a beauty there that had touched him deeper than he could have imagined. He had found himself caught up in Goku’s sorrow, sharing it with him, wanting to touch more deeply, caress his satin skin…

            He blushed as he realized the direction his thoughts had tended towards. It was annoying. He wasn’t supposed to feel like that anyone. But when Goku needed to cry, and came to him, he found he couldn’t resist holding him, comforting him. Part of him wanted to look forward to the day when he could do more than hold him when he cried…

            Piccolo was honest with himself; he knew he had little to no experience with sex. He had the vague idea that it involved a lot of contact, and somehow fluids were exchanged. He hadn’t known much else until he had seen what Furiza had done to Goku. Healing the damage had given a view of it that most didn’t, and he didn’t want to hurt Goku further. Yet the urge to seal his mouth to the Saiya-jins, wrap him in his arms and make Goku forget about anything else…

            He shook himself free of his little fantasy before his other self could take advantage of it. He fired an energy blast off, dodged, attacked, ducked, and kicked. Besides, he thought, he didn’t know if Goku even felt the same way.

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            They didn’t recognize the tension that seemed to spring up between them as they continued on. Both Piccolo and Goku still sparred, and Piccolo still comforted Goku as best he could in the times they slept. Only Gohan saw that they were awkward around each other, and that it wasn’t a one-sided type thing. Although why was a mystery to him.

            The planet Yardrat was colorful, Gohan thought, imagining what the people looked like. His father had said that they were short and pink, and had dressed much the same way he had when he had returned.

            He heard a beeping, and was getting a signal from the planet below him.

            Mentally he praised Bulma’s genius at being able to build an automatic translator, complete with colloquialisms, for them to use.

            “Hello,” he said, as the visual from the transmission came through. He blinked. Small and pink, and wrinkled, seemed to sum them up fairly well.

            “We do not know you,” said the speaker, looking him over.

            “Uh, no, you don’t. My name is Son Gohan. I’m the son of Son Goku…”

            This started flurry of noise on the other end, as it seemed that everyone there knew Son Goku. The little alien seemed cheer, happy that their friend had returned.

            “We meet you at landing point!” said the speaker, when all the noise had died down, transmitting coordinates for him to go to.

            “And please, be more careful than Son Goku with landing.”

            He nodded gravely, and sputtered a laugh afterwards. He could just imagine his father’s arrival… Actually, he didn’t want to.

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            Goku watched through a window as they landed, and slowly walked down the ramp. Memories, as always, threatened to deluge him, make him crumple and cry. He saw the familiar faces of his friends that he had made.

            Very few of the Yardrat-jin used their birth names. Instead, they picked use-names, one that simply fitted their personality better.

            Laughs Happy ran up to him, burbling with joy and tugged on his friend’s pants, trying to drag Goku off with him. Goku smiled and shook his head, and gestured for his friends to follow him.

            Piccolo and Gohan walked down the ramp, and they heard the hush that announced their arrival. Piccolo felt like he was under a microscope as he felt the weight of their stares.

            Goku began with the introductions. He pointed out Laughs Happy, Star Dreamer, Flower Bright, and Stone Shard. He looked around-

            “Hey, everyone, where is Elder Healer?” he asked plaintively. He needed to find the old female. She was the one that had treated him most often.

            There was more burbling laughter from the crowd, when someone stop softly, in their language:

            “I am here, Son Goku.”

            The Yardrat-jin parted respectfully, and Goku walked through the cleared area, to see-

            It was Elder Healer, smiling benignly at him and he stopped stalk still, feeling like someone had frozen his lungs.

            A little girl, that was most definitely NOT Yardrat-jin stood by her. She was dressed as they were, looking wide eyed at him. Her hair was black as his, only longer, and tied back, with odd purple highlights. Her face was pale, almost grayish in tint, and her eyes were little black gems. She had no shoes, showing three splayed toed feet, and a very long, monkey tail twitched behind her, longer and thicker than had been his own, but not as thick as her father’s, and furry.

            She cocked her head to the side, looking at him with wide-eyed delight.

            “So, YOU’RE my mommy!”

            Goku promptly fainted.

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            Goku woke with two faces looking over him; one was familiar, Gohan, his son. The other-

            With a cry, he pulled Gaea into an embrace, and he felt her little arms wrap around his neck. He kissed her face, and started to inspect her all over, checking and rechecking to make sure she was all right.

            She giggled. “Mommy, you’re SILLY!”

            Goku heard the soft chuckle of Elder Healer beside him.

            “How?” he asked, cradling the little girl, who cuddled happily against his broad chest.

            “If she was alive, why did you let me think she was dead?”

            Elder Healer gave him a bittersweet smile. “She was on the brink of death, as you left. It was only a matter of time before her body started to consume itself, do to her having such drastically different DNA patterns. Her immune system had no idea what to fight. We had come up with an experimental treatment, but it couldn’t be tested before she would have died. When her body started to shut down, we put her into cryogenic suspension. We had no idea if we could develop the treatment in time, or even if it would work. We didn’t even know if we could revive her out of cryogenic suspension, she was that close to death. We decided, that since you had been through so much pain already, that we would not tell you. Because if we had failed, it would have hurt you far worse than anything we could have done.”

            “It was not a decision we made lightly. It was a miracle that we succeeded, and it was not without cost. She will never be able to fight, the way that you do. She is frail. Her bones are weak, and while she could survive a mild illness, a moderate would kill her with ease. The same goes with wounds. She bleeds freely.”

            She looked at the little girl, and smoothed her hair. Gaea smiled, and kissed the old female’s nose.

            Goku hugged her even harder. Gohan was grinning hugely at the little girl, looking her over, imagining what life with her would be like.

            Piccolo couldn’t help but smile along with them. Gaea took after her mother, that much was certain. Her smile and happy attitude couldn’t have come from her father.

            Goku rested his cheek on her hair. “Can I take her home with me?” he said softly.

            Gaea felt something warm on her face. “Mommy?” she asked, touching the tears trailing down the man’s face.

            Elder Healer looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. “She should be able to make the trip, provided you treat her gently.”

            “Why did you hesitate?” Piccolo asked abruptly. He couldn’t stand the thought of Goku being hurt again.

            “Because, Namek-jin, the thought of Gaea leaving is a painful one. We all love her.”

            Gaea was looking back and forth between Piccolo and Goku. “Mommy, and that my brother’s daddy?” she asked, pointing.

            Sweat drop.

            “Ah, no honey,” Goku asked, and while Gohan cracked up.

            “I do not believe in long goodbyes,” said Elder Healer, and she stood up. “You may leave as soon as you wish. We are happy to have you visit us again, Son Goku,” she smiled, and bowed politely. “You are such an easy guest to have, you take so little to feed.”

            There was a huge sweat drop from Piccolo and Gohan.

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            Parkkon was hunting. In the afterlife, that didn’t mean much, but he really, really wanted to find that bastard.

            Furiza had been giving the demon guards even more trouble than usual. He had made a break into heaven, and had stolen three baby souls. What he was doing with them was anyone’s guess.

            King Kai had figured that he was trying to find a way to affect the living again. He had told Parkkon something that had disturbed him. Those souls had belonged to the children of himself and Goku.

            Parkkon snarled as he continued to try to find the trail of the evil spirit.

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            Furiza loomed over the three wailing babies in front of him. They were toddlers, actually, but it didn’t matter to him what bodies they had been given. He could use them. They had been womb mates to the survivor, and with that survivor, he would trade out bodies, and live once again.

           

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            Goku woke up again. The dream had been the same one, the rape, the crying.

            He had been sleeping on his ship, while they made preparations to get off of Yardrat, and take his daughter home.

            He could still hear the babies crying. Crying for their mother. They were scared…

 

To be continued.